Nissan Altima 2008 Maintenance and Repair

I just bought a 2008 Altima Sedan 2.5S and is under 200 miles. Today, I finally looked under the hood along with the manual book in my hand to learn the whereabouts of all fluid locations.. to my surprise.. from the center of the engine all the way to the right side..(on the air filter, battery, etc.) I see a oil-like all over.. as if it has been spraying out somewhere..I ran my fingers on it and it smeared like oil - I could not smell it.. but it's like clear to brown in color... Does anyone know if this is normal or do I have a leakage somewhere? Is it the oil like I suspect? Yes, I will take it to Nissan and have it checked.. meanwhile.. it's the weekend.. and would like to have some peace of mind until Monday.

In addition, the power steering fluid reservoir, should that have been filled to max when I first bought the vehicle? Because, right now the level is below the Cold Min.

Comments

You may want to wait until Monday morning, give the dealer a call, explain the situation and he may want to tow the vehicle in rather than you driving it in. It will be under warranty and yes, you definatly have a problem which you do not to make worse by driving it. If it is indeed engine oil, you do not know how much has sprayed out and if you hatch the engine due to this, the dealer will look for any reason to void the warranty. Have them tow it!

But I found out that it was not anything to worry about..it was just the cleaner that was used to spray over.. that makes it look so brand new... as the engine heats up the spray agent starts to sweat.. I simply wiped it down.. and all is well... =)

New purchase Feb. 23, 2008 Altima SL....drove 2 weeks; would not start. Dealer kept for week and replaced starter on March 14 and car was picked up on Good Friday, drove out of town Saturday, and guess what? On Easter..it would not start. Had to be towed by wrecker to Dealer on Monday. ECM was replaced on 3/26 Wednesday....now Service Manager says there is a code showing up that it has a CLUTCH problem~?!? Funny...it's an automatic, 4 cylinder!! He wants to keep it until the middle of next week?~!?Any advice from knowledgeable gentlemen and ladies....please?~!?SP :lemon:

Thank you for your reply!Same dealer doing repairs!There is another dealer about an hour away...what can they do for me please?~ I am at a loss here................ and yes, on my 2nd rental car provided by them. The PR that is being funneled here especially since I W A S driving a new car is overwhelming...everyone wants to know the "story" and yes, I am sharing !~ *grin*The CLUTCH code is very interesting to say the least~!~! Don't you agree?? :confuse:

If it was me, I would seriously consider having dealer #2 look at this car. I am making the assumption that you have made no modifications to the car, and that it is in completely stock condition, as delivered.

Obviously, I only know what you have posted, but it appears that this dealership is doing a lot of "head scratching" on you car. And, what's upwith the CLUTCH code? Is anyone in the service dept. actively pursuing that with Nissan USA???

Lets face it...there are only so many things that will cause your problems, and there are ways that any reputable dealership can determine the cause of discharged electrical systems (I am assuming you are experiencing a dead battery situation here).

It just seems that a second pair of eyes are in order here. At least, they are providing a rental. Make sure you get copies and RETAIN them of each visits paperwork...you may need them in the future....

I hope by now everything is okay with your Altima.....if yes.. what was the problem?

I'm not much of a mechanic.. but because I have a 2008 Altima too.. I make sure that I read up all about it....and be knowledgable with all the specs..

Just wondering... they changed the starter.. then they say it's a clutch issue-- but you have an automatic... Do you have the Intellegent Key with the Push Start Button? If yes, could it have been the battery for the IK?

I doubt the starting issue was anything more than the (brake/clutch) interrupt switch. Same part, just depends on which tranny you have.

On the CVT Altimas, you need to have your foot on the brake in order to start, and on the 6-speed (like ours), you must depress the clutch pedal. The ECM code likely read the same when they scanned it (hence "clutch")

Ever since the idiotic "60 Minutes" fraud about Audi "unintended acceleration" cars have been saddled with this nanny switch.

IMHO, the service dept wasted time & effort replacing the starter when it was (obviously) a simple switch.

However, I have noticed (similar to comments posted in some other threads around here) that when I get the car moving over 30-35mph, I hear a high pitched whistling from outside the car. If the windows are up, you can't really hear it... but with the windows down, even just a little bit, it's loud enough to be very obnoxious. The pitch changes with the speed and the gusts of wind, so it must be a gap or a hole somewhere that's making the sound.

Do other people have this problem, and what have you done about it? I suppose I'll bring it back over to the service department and see what they have to say... but before I do, any advice on what to call this problem would be greatly appreciated.

have to do my first oil change on my altima v6 coupe. any tips, on how to get under the car and what to remove to get to the oil filter. on my 03 murano, it was pretty easy, only had to turn the wheels to the right to get access to the filter. thanks, rr70

YES! I have this same problem, its horrible. SO VERY HORRIBLE. I am planning a call today about it and was looking for direction as to where this is originating from. Seems no one really is sure (in forums). It seems to starting picking up at about 40+ for me. I have also noticed it changing pitch with gusts of wind. I was thinking mirror design, but a hole of some sort also sounds reasonable. Well, I will keep you posted and please post info if dealership fixed the problem!

Hey guys, ran into this on another forum...I am going to have my service department look into it. I hope it help some of you, maybe this is the answer!

"I purchased a 2008 Altima 2.5 S, and when the window is down, there is the same annoying whistling sound that you discribe. I get this noise between 40 and 60 mph. I did a little "detective" work and I discovered that if I covered the side view mirror with a towel, I did not hear the noise. I examined the mirror and saw that on the botton portion of the mirror, there is a seam. I purchased for a few dollars a clear silicone adhesive sealer, put down a narrow bead in the seam, and 99% of the whistling noise is gone. I felt this was a better solution than going to the dealer, who would either not do anything, or do the same thing I did, or worse, replace the side view mirror. That could open a whole other can of worms. If you take your time, the silicone seal will not be visable...and it worked for me. Hope this helps."

Excellent! I mean, not for you... but at least the problem isn't unique to my car... that means it should be easier to fix.

You may be correct on the mirror theory. I have a friend who once worked for Mercedes in Germany, and remembers an instance of one of their cars having a similar problem. He said they replaced the outside mirrors, and the problem went away... so it maybe something similar here.

I have an appointment for Monday, June 9th to have someone at the dealership take a look at it. I will post after they've diagnosed/fixed the problem.

Well, I brought my car in on Monday (6/09/08) and did a test run with one of the garage guys. He heard it, so Nissan had me leave my car with them. They held my car all day Monday, and all day Tuesday, and all day Wednesday. They apparently tried a number of different things (including reseating the door), but nothing worked... although they did manage to put on about 100 miles to my car.

On Thursday, they called to tell me they have diagnosed the problem to be the outside mirrors... but Nissan HQ still doesn't quite know how to fix it. They said HQ is aware of the issue, and knows the simply replacing the mirrors won't fix the problem, so they're "working on it." They then told me they would call me back in a week or two with a remedy... just as soon as Nissan HQ tells them what to do.

So for right now... it's Whistlin' Dixie for me, although after they worked on it, they managed to tone it down a bit, so now it's just a high pitched squeal, rather than a whistle. A friend of mine (a former Mercedes worker from Germany) recommended I put plastic wrap (like from the kitchen) over the mirror to stop the whistling. He said a little plastic wrap and some tape, and that should be a good temporary fix... just don't cover the mirror part. I'm going to give that a try... at least until they fix it.

I have the same problem. I think it's probably characteristic to all '07-'08 Altimas. If I had to guess, I'd say they're probably never going to fix it. It would cost them so much money to fix something so minuscule.

It amazes me how they missed something like this during their test runs of the car... This is so obvious that it's literally obnoxious. I really hope nissan fixes this.

So I purchased an Altima 2.5SL on 23 Jun 08. Two weeks and 6 days later it started losing power as I&#146;m driving. This was on a Tuesday, which was the day I received the vehicle back from the dealership after having work done on the due bill (including installing the Omega GPS system). It occurred as I was pulling into a parking stall and flashed the security indicator light on the dash. I assumed it was because I did not register the Omega system and called the company who told me that vehicle shut off was not one of their features. I called the service department who did not return my call. On Thursday I was going 45 MPH when the car shut off again and flashed the security indicator light. After restarting the vehicle I didn&#146;t have another problem until the following morning when it shut off again while traveling at 45 MPH in the exact location from the day before. I restarted the car and it shut off again twice before getting to my destination (within ½ mile from the first power loss). These times the vehicle showed the Intelligent Key system warning light and the &#147;check engine soon&#148; light came on. I was able to return to my work place and called Nissan about a tow. According to my dealership they do not provide tow service and gave me the number to the Nissan roadside assistance. I contacted the number they provided and realized I did not have the roadside assistance so I decided to drive the vehicle to the dealership. Within in the first quarter mile the vehicle lost power, I restarted the vehicle and it lost power within 10 feet. I then pulled into a parking lot and called Geico to tow the vehicle. The vehicle arrived at the dealership that afternoon and I was able to speak with the service department the following afternoon (I had called 4 times without getting a hold of anyone). At that time I was told the service manager was with the technician looking at my vehicle. I received a call back a while later and was told they did not find any error codes indicating the engine stalled and they were unable to duplicate the issue with extensive driving around and wanted more information. I told the technician it wasn&#146;t so much the engine stalling as the vehicle losing power. It was during a hot period (it was about 110 degrees outside), the air conditioner was blasting and the radio was on. The service person stated he would relay that to the technician who would have to keep the vehicle over the weekend.

Luckily my car hasn&#146;t lost power while I have been traveling with my two children, but I hate to think about the next time it decides to turn off. Has anyone heard of this issue occurring in the 2008 vehicles? Any information would be appreciated.

I have Nissan Altima 2008 model that I got serviced 2 months back. Suddenly after the service, mileage as gone down considerably. It used to be around 21 mpg in city but right now is around 15.5 mpg or so. After service I only drove like 1000 miles and has just total 5000 miles on it.

One day, just to check, I opened the hood and found that car coolant is almost at the minimum point. The other point that I noticed was car, when idle, has RPM more than 1000 and when started in morning goes up to 2000 without doing anything immediately after switching on the ignition.

I went to the dealer and they said car is okay and has no problem. And I guess they were just checking engine codes or waiting for check engine light to turn on.

Someone told me that there is possibly a problem with Engine Idle controller. Can anybody explain this to me and any idea what should be the RPM range when car is started first time in the morning? Is there any such range, I can tell the dealer that car is going beyond so that he agrees that car has some problem.

1. your mileage difference could be because of the whether. cars never get as good of mileage in colder whether as they do in warmer whether.

2. the coolant level our seeing is in the reservoir. the level will go up and down depending on the temperature of the engine. when a liquid is heated it expands. thats what the reservoir is for, to hold the extra volume of antifreeze due to heating. when the engine is cold, there will always be less coolant in the reservoir

3, when your car is cold, the engine will idle higher. a cold engine is very ineficent, and the idea is to warm it up faster. thats why the increased idle.